Just about everyone knows how to earn money from the Web nowadays, right? You slap up a quick website, put some Google Adsense ads on it and wait for the cash to roll in. Or not. Even banner ads and affiliate schemes can be hard work when you’re starting out. But the good news is that there are other ways you can make money from the Internet, some weird, others not so. Follow us down Money Lane as we point out some…

Help me out here, a little confused. I’ve just read that Jammie Thomas is currently liable to pay the record labels $1.5 million for illegally sharing 24 songs, which seems to value each track at an astonishing $62,500. But hold on. Over here on this site I read with amazement that the major insurance companies are valuing the average music *collection* at a mere £85.00, and only 10% of insurers will offer cover for downloaded music collections over £2000 in…

The COICA (Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act) is yet another of the growing list of stupid legislative initiatives being rushed through the process in order to censor the Internet. What is the matter with these people? The idea is to create a blacklist of domain names which ISPs must use to censor sites considered to be infringers. As with all of this dumb legislation, it will do nothing to stop real commercial piracy, but will instead result in innocent…

First point…I am scared of being ridiculed. I also have absolutely no idea whether there are UFO or alien craft in our universe, or a desire for them to exist. I’m happy with the status quo, thanks very much. The only thing I would like to point out is when 120 serious type former US military people stand up publicly and give testimony that they believe we have been visited by ‘beings from another world’, we should perhaps stop a…

If you’re an Xmarks user then I’m sure by now you’ve received an email announcing that they’re closing up shop in 90 days. According to the Xmarks blog they’ve been unable to find either a viable business-model, or a buyer for the company. It would be a truly sad day for the internets if this fantastic and extremely reliable service disappears, and a sad indictment that a top 1,500 website can’t make money in this day and age. What I…

I’ve been covering Nokia since the early days…the launch of the original 9000 Communicator, the seminal Nokia 7650 in 2001 (yep the first ever camera phone) and the original 6210, probably the most memorable mobile handset ever made in terms of functionality, robustness and popularity. We’ve watched the company go from bemused surprise at their insanely rapid rise to dominance, to arrogance as they stagnated at the top of their market, through to defensiveness, first evidenced six years ago as the company ran afoul…

This Handy Sana 210 is a mobile phone based healthcare system which is designed to provide ‘doctor in the pocket’ type health monitoring on tap. The Heart Suite software that comes with the system can take ECG readings, and the system also offers access to blood pressure, blood glucose and other important health indicators. The handset itself sports a 2.8 inch touchscreen, Internet browser, 1.3 camera and microSD storage, and the whole kit is tied together with a 24 hour response…

It’s common knowledge by now that all is not happy in the Nokia camp. Profits continue to collapse, their friends are deserting them and for all the bravado of their executives it really looks as though the Finnish colossus has lost its way completely. As a long time fan of the company and its products, I’ve been saddened to see the decline of this once mighty company, a company which really defined the mobile phone business for much of the world,…

This Wired article, Facebook’s Gone Rogue, really sums up the growing anger at the arrogant abuse of power that Facebook is starting to exhibit to both its users and the Internet community in general. Zuckerberg may think that the company is too big to fail, but he could be in for a shock. No-one is suggesting that tens of millions of users are suddenly going to close their account, but there’s definitely a growing number of people thinking about it. I…

1 Billion Hungry is not revolution, it’s just an attempt to improve things through people power. Why are there over a billion hungry people in century 21? Doesn’t make a lot of sense. Tags: 1+billion+hungry, online+petition

Buildings clad in glass look fantastic, however life in a glass building is just that little bit more difficult (especially with stone throwers -Ed). In hot climates, you need adjustable blinds and air conditioning to keep it livable. In cold climes you’ve got to cover them up or all that hard-earned heat just pours out the window. Well the clever people at Peer + might have just found the solution with their, Smart Energy Glass. It looks like ordinary glass…

A press release for something called the Zermatt Summit which landed in my inbox yesterday certainly made me blink. The meeting, which will be held in Switzerland June 3–5th, is aiming to help ‘create a better world’ by seeing how we can make the economy serve the common good, rather than just enrich a few. Hallelujah brother! Sure, the cynics will sneer, the skeptics will mutter darkly about communism and the rest will probably move on quickly to read something more interesting, but…

The BBC is under attack from commercial organisations who want to remove it from their competitive landscape, as a scapegoat to paper over their own commercial inefficiencies. Great for them, lousy for the rest of us. There’s a petition to Save the BBC for those who are interested. Pass it on – http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_bbc/97.php?CLICKTF and another one http://38degrees.org.uk/page/s/bbccuts#petition Tags: bbc, save+the+bbc

Mmm…seems like we’re not the only ones getting worried about the dominance of the large online services and their control over our data. Web icon Dave Winer yesterday echoed our sentiments that the trend towards monetizing and dominating chunks of the web [direct link down, Google cache version] is leaving us all vulnerable to a potentially nasty future. The moral of the story of the Facebook patent and all the recent news from Apple and Google: Tech companies are no better or…